By Daniel Henninger - The Wall Street Journal
Something purely political scared off New Jerseys governor.
It was always easy to understand the case for Chris Christie. In an age of inescapable media politics is the art of communication. Rick Perry tripped over his tongue in one debate and the gods of polling cast him out. Tim Pawlenty mastered the details of national policy but missed the memo that modern politics is dancing with the stars.
What Chris Christies deeply disappointed promoters recognized is that the freshman governor is a great communicator a rare gift. A short list of great political communicators would include New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia Bill Clinton and Chris Christieall super salesmen of retail politics.
The La Guardias Clintons and Christies are merely the genius product of how people negotiate life where they grew upLa Guardias New York streets Clintons slick Southern charm. Its hard to overstate how New Jersey Chris Christie is. People compare Chris Christie to James Gandolfinis Tony Soprano. But its not Tony Soprano. Its just James Gandolfini a Jersey guy. Both emit a Dont b.s. me in-your-face bluntness learned living in a state filled with no-nonsense Italians and Irish. (Mr. Christie is both.)
Gov. Christie said repeatedly this year he didnt think he was ready to run for the presidential roses. No matter. They told him this is an historically important presidential election in which the American people need to decide whether to go where Barack Obamas wants to take them or choose the alternative thats been best articulated by Rep. Paul Ryan. True. But those banking on a Christie run may have seen only a glass half-full.
Gov. Christie has come across the Hudson River a number of times to talk to the Journals editorial-page writers. Weve heard a lot of his high-velocity rhetoric. Often overlooked when hes performing this verbal magic is that about 80 of what Gov. Christie says is drab detail about New Jerseys budget pension crisis schools situation property taxes and the rest. He flat-out knows New Jersey.
The admired Christie persona isnt just charisma charm and smarts attributes that adhere to many political rookies. Unlike rookies almost all of the devastating punchlines Mr. Christie delivers are wrapped inside a substantive detailed argument.
What Gov. Christie gives his audiences is the performance of a gifted federal attorney which he was in New Jersey for six years. Prosecutors master facts and fashion them into a case for their side. No one in politics today matches facts to plain speaking better than Chris Christie. But with this stillborn presidential draft Mr. Christie was being asked to perform without half his skill set his mastery of facts.
When Mr. Christie said he wasnt ready he didnt mean he wasnt ready to be president. He meant he wasnt ready to argue the case in front of a national jury. If Chris Christie knew as much as Paul Ryan does about entitlements ObamaCare the details of the U.S. budget and federal tax policy hed have rolled over the incumbent like a (insert your heavyweight metaphor here).
But Mr. Christie didnt know enough about any of these national subjects and in his first public events and debates it would have shown as it has for the races other fully employed governor Rick Perry. And when he didnt perform the impossible miracle of downloading Paul Ryans brain for next weeks debate the blogosphere and the conservative base would have whined disappointment. That in turn would have fed into a media narrative of another failed Republican high-flyer. The polls would mark him down and the insatiable GOP beast would have gone back to prowling the streets for their next expendable leader.
This is the half-wit way we pick presidents now. All the serious people are saying No thanks. The Pick-Seven presidential selection system isnt working.
For all this there were several good arguments against Mr. Christies no-go decision.
The first came from the lady who shouted at the Reagan Library Your country needs you. In this field there was a chance that enough Republican voters would have agreed securing the nomination for Gov. Christie because the party believed he was the One. Organizational hurdles aside in the months until next Augusts conventions the former prosecutor could have mastered the case against Barack Obama. An informed Chris Christie is a formidable opponent. Ask the Jersey teachers union.
This would have worked only if the Republican base had been willing to cut him slack on performance and ideology. Pickup-team campaign organizations make mistakes but with our politics bordering on the tribal theres no patience for the merest whiff of heresy. Ask Rick Perry now bogged down in the immigration quicksand. Some similar act of imperfection awaited Chris Christie. The purifying furies of the Web forest would have been on him in minutes.
Feel free to believe he said No only because of organizational challenges. I think something purely political scared him off. It might behoove the hyper-energized conservative base to look in the mirror and ask why Chris Christie is only the latest to take a pass on the gauntlet.
